The present invention relates to a collector for electric machines, having a body made of insulating material and lamellas or commutator segments anchored in the body by shaped anchoring elements. On one end of each lamella there is provided a hook element with a base. The insulating body is provided with a supporting rib for each hook base. The free end portion of each hook is narrower in the peripheral dimension of the insulating body than the portion of its attached lamella forming the bearing surface of the collector.
In such collectors, the coil ends are often electrically and mechanically connected with the attached hooks by welding after they are mechanically snapped into position. By this welding, the electrode of a rheostat welding machine is set up and pressed down on the free end of the hook. Thus, the coil end which is insulated by varnish and attached to the hook is melted by the flow of heat and pressure and is thereby welded to the hook.
Easy accessibility of the hooks is a condition of the continuous mechanical coiling of a runner and for the resulting automatic snapping into position of the coil end at the appropriate time on the attached hooks. For that reason, in known collectors there are tongues provided on the ends of the lamellas which tongues are turned toward the coil. The tongue has the same cross-sectional area over its entire length and is bent to form a coil hook. The portion of this coil hook which forms the hook base is supported by a supporting rib of the insulating body.
However, it has been found that the coil hooks of these collectors cannot withstand the welding pressure which is necessary for satisfactory welding, particularly when a relatively thick varnish coating, or double-coated varnish insulated wire is used, as is more and more frequently the case. In particular, the supporting ribs of the insulating body are melted or otherwise destroyed and as a result the coil hooks may become displaced in a direction toward the bore of the collector. Consequently, the required welding pressure cannot be achieved. In addition, the connection between the lamellas and the insulating body in which only small anchoring elements are generally anchored, becomes loose, and as a result the collector is not usable.